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Suffolk’s sentence was to be carried into effect on
1 May, and he sailed from Ipswich for the Continent on 30 April,
but was intercepted on the Kentish coast by vessels lying in wait for
him there. The sailors seized and beheaded him across the gunwale of a
boat and threw his head and body on the sands by Dover. By the end of
the month Kent had broken into open revolt under Jack Cade, whose
rebellion lasted from 31 May till 12 July.
In contrast with the insurrection of 1381, this movement was almost
entirely political. It broke out at Ashford or the vicinity,1
and its
leader seems to have been a man of education and capacity, able to
organize an army and draw up a proclamation. Of his origin nothing is
known, but he declared that his real name was Mortimer and that he had
been a captain under the Duke of York. Among his followers were many
yeomen and not a few squires.2 About the second week in June,
1450, Cade encamped his host on Blackheath in proper military style,
keeping good discipline. At the king’s request he tendered fifteen ‘
Articles of Complaint,’ accompanied by five ‘Articles of Request’
in English.3 This interesting document, the first open
manifestation of Yorkist sympathies, declaimed against the traitors who
had lost France, wasted the king’s treasures, estranged the king from
the Duke of York, and otherwise misgoverned. Several complaints had
especial reference to Kent, which, it was rumoured, was to be destroyed
for the murder of Suffolk.4 The ‘ Requests’ demanded the
punishment of four local traitors, ‘Sleg, Crowmer, Isle, and Robert
Est.’
The Government sternly ordered the rebels to disperse and prepared to
attack the camp at Blackheath, whereupon the insurgents withdrew to the
wooded country round Sevenoaks. In an ambush near Bromley, Sir Humfrey
Stafford of Grafton, and his cousin, William Stafford of Somerset,
pushing on with the royal van, were killed with some twenty-four
followers, with the result that the king’s men, already inclined to
sympathise with the Kentishmen, became mutinous, and demanded the heads
of Lords Say and Dudley, and of Thomas Daniel, John Say, John Norris,
and John Trevilian. Lord Say was especially unpopular in Kent,5
and
the rising was most strongly supported in the neighbourhood of Knowle,
his principal seat. In order to placate the Kentishmen, the king ordered
Say and his son-in-law, William Crowmer, the unpopular Sheriff of Kent,
to be taken to the Tower. He then disbanded his troops and fled to
Kenilworth. London, being thus deserted by the king and lords of the
Council, opened its gates to Cade, who seized Lord Say and Crowmer, put
them to death, and set up their heads on London Bridge.
After this it became increasingly difficult for Cade to keep control
over his followers, who pillaged and sacked until the magnates were
frightened into taking action, and Lord Scales sallied forth from the
Tower to seize London
1 Hist. MSS. Corn. Rep. V, xvii. Hythe showed its sympathy with
the cause by presenting him with a porpoise.
2 Ibid. App. 509. Pardon, 7 July, 28 Hen. VI, to John Sender of
Faversham, esq., William Barbour of Faversham, senior, gentleman, and
all and singular other the men within the vill of Faversham and liberty
thereof dwelling, for having taken part in the rebellion of Jack Cade.
Cade’s carver and sword-bearer was Sir Robert Poynings, who married
Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir William Paston, some of whose
correspondence is included in the Paston letters. When her husband was
killed at the second battle of St. Albans, she inherited his Kentish
property, and brought up their son, the lord deputy of Ireland, there.
5 Hisi. MSS. Corn. Rep. VIII, 266b; and Magdalen College, Oxford, Misc.
Doc. 306.
6 J. Stow, Annales, 388, 389.
7 He had been made Constable of Dover and Warden of the Cinque Ports, 24
February 1446-7, by letters patent which made the grant to him and his
heirs male. |